Since the mid-1990s, army mutinies and serial rebellion in the Central African Republic (CAR) have resulted in two major succesful coups. Over the course of these upheavals, the country has become a laboratory for peacebuilding initiatives, hosting a two-decade-long succession of UN and regional peacekeeping, peacebuilding and special political missions. This collective volume provides an analysis of the country's recent history of rebellion, instability, and international and regional intervention. Contents: 1. Making sense of CAR: an introduction (Louisa Lombard and Tatiana Carayannis); 2. CAR's history: the past of a tense present (Stephen W. Smith); 3. Being rich, being poor: wealth and fear in the Central African Republic (Roland Marchal); 4. Local dynamics in the PK5 district of Bangui (Faouzi Kilembe); 5. The elite's road to riches in a poor country (Stephen W. Smith); 6. A multifaceted business: diamonds in the Central African Republic (Ned Dalby); 7. The autonomous zone conundrum: armed conservation and rebellion in north-eastern CAR (Louisa Lombard); 8. CAR and the regional (dis)order (Roland Marchal); 9. Pathologies of peacekeeping and peacebuilding in CAR (Nathaniel Olin); 10. From being forgotten to being ignored: international humanitarian interventions in the Central African Republic (Enrica Picco); 11. CAR's southern identity: Congo, CAR, and international justice (Tatiana Carayannis); 12. In unclaimed land: The Lord's Resistance Army in CAR (Ledio Cakaj); 13. A Central African elite perspective on the struggles of the Central African Republic (Laurence D. Wohlers); 14. A concluding note on the failure and future of peacebuilding in CAR (Tatiana Carayannis and Louisa Lombard). [ASC Leiden abstract]